What Is A CRM?
Do you have a CRM?
Did you know one of the biggest reason agents fail at real estate is because they have no systematic way to stay connected to their clients and people they know.
There’s an old saying in the real estate business and it is
“The fortune is in the follow up”, and the only way to effectively follow up with folks you meet is to have somewhere you can go that you can access their information quickly and easily.
If you want to make a “fortune” you must stay in touch with all the people you know and have worked with in the past and in order to make sure you do, it should be easy.
A CRM (contact resource management) is where all the information you have about a person is placed for safe keeping. A good CRM will also facilitate the ability to showcase how you can help them buy and sell property via email drip campaigns and any form of marketing you want to send them.
You might be thinking ,”Well ALL my peeps are on Facebook. I just stay in touch with them there”.
Facebook is not a CRM!
Unlike Facebook, your CRM has recorded documentation for emails, phone numbers, home and business addresses, as well as information on their family members, pets names and personal information that enables you to know what they want in a home if they are buying in the future or selling time frames if they will be selling in the future. You will want to have recorded notes on experiences you had with this person so you can recall this information when you speak with them.
I had a client that at 50 went back to college. I called him one day to see how he was doing. I had spoken to him about a year previously and with the notes that were recorded a year ago in my CRM and in front of me, I asked how college was. He was so shocked I remembered and was grateful for the ask. We had a nice engaging conversation that turned around to real estate. But he never thought I was just calling to get business. So you see, people just want to know you care about them and are interested in their lives. They will want to do business with you because of it.
Your drip campaigns can literally be designed however you want but in order to be effective you will want them to be different for every Buyer, Seller or individual you have been staying in touch with.
For instance, you will have all sorts of people in all sorts of time frames for buying or selling. So if you have all your past clients and the anniversary dates when they purchased their last home in your CRM, those emails will be designed differently than the one who is just looking to buy or sell. Include Birthdays and wedding anniversaries as well to give you a reason to call or send a card.
Lead Nurturing Drip campaign
EXAMPLE: A lady comes into your open house. You have an engaging conversation with her but she is not ready to buy for a year. You want to stay in touch since this has become a warm lead. So you develop a series of emails and postcards that will be sent out with relevant information to selling her home. What do you think she will want to know?
Here are four ideas for a postcard or email you would send her:
1. Why correct pricing is important
2. Staging the home and its importance to value
3. Professional photography and how that impacts value
4. Tips to prepare the home.
Hear what I’m saying? Create a mix of 12 emails and postcards to be sent out like clockwork every month. If your idea is to contact them once a month which seems reasonable then do 6 email drip campaigns and 6 postcard drip campaigns. If you are incorporating video (which I hope you are) use that in place of a postcard or email. (Remember to throw in a phone call 2 times a year to see how she is doing as well.)
Once you have taken the time to input all your people in the CRM, and determined how many times a year you will reach out to them and created your campaigns, you will direct your CRM to expedite that for you. It will schedule your drip campaigns with whatever piece of marketing you want to send and it will schedule phone calls and text messages as well.
Your CRM can actually schedule your daily activities if you input that into the system. You have to put in the work upfront and then follow the outline you designed for yourself.
Targeted Drip Campaign Ideas
Here are more ideas for different categories for drip campaigns to target particular client and customers. Use these to get you started designing your marketing.
-First Time Home Buyers
-Past Sellers/Potential Sellers
-Past Buyers/Potential Buyers
-For Sale By Owners
-Open House Visitors
-Expired Listings you have contacted
-Geographical neighborhoods
So how do you go about finding a CRM that fits your budget and is easy to use? Google Real Estate CRM and some popular ones will come up. Do research to see how expensive they are and if they are user friendly. I have found that if something is not easy to use, I will get frustrated and give up since I am not extremely tech-y. I simply do not have time to fiddle around for hours trying to figure something out.
I have used Wise Agent for years. It is affordable and easy for me to record information an operate their system without too much brain loss. If you have a CRM such as Wise Agent you can use the email drip campaigns they provide. If you are creative, develop your own within their system using pertinent real estate information for your area.
Postcard and Email Drip Campaign Ideas
Here are some ideas for postcards and emails that you can send out:
-DYI projects to update their home
– how to buy a home
– how to sell a home
– what to expect when working with a builder
– how much are closing costs
– what should I expect at an inspection
Design them to fit the needs of the prospective client.
Get good, relevant information for you marketing by Googling questions that buyers and Sellers ask and it will give you a lot of ideas to design good drip campaigns that are engaging and interesting that you can send out.
Having a good mix of email drip campaigns that include post card marketing with relevant and interesting information using catchy headlines as well as video mixed in will set you apart from the herd in keeping in touch and following up with potential prospects.
Call-To-Action Examples
Make sure all of your marketing pieces have a “call to action” on them and/or offering. The example of a call to action/offer would be “Call Cynda Today for a Free Market Analysis” if you are sending to a seller prospect. Or if you are targeting prospective Buyers, offer “Call Today for a Free Buyer Consultation”.
Once you have completed year-long campaign of once a month contacts to your CRM, you could dial it down to sending the postcards quarterly, but I would still do email once a month. Use different material or information in a postcard than you send in your emails. Mix it up and make it interesting and relevant. Be sure to always have your contact info (name, phone number, email and website) on all your marketing pieces.
Everybody needs a contact system to effectively lead generate. If you don’t have one, you need one!
Call me to discuss a plan of action to get you making money, 816.365.9807.